


The Best Man for the Job

by 1_NoName_among_many



Series: Here Comes the Groom [2]
Category: Red White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston
Genre: Gen, In this installment:, More - Freeform, We learn about an interesting fact, wedding fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:26:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28197624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1_NoName_among_many/pseuds/1_NoName_among_many
Summary: Henry tries to sort out his guest list. Emphasis on "tries".
Relationships: Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor & Philip Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor
Series: Here Comes the Groom [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1910866
Kudos: 20





	The Best Man for the Job

Philip was getting ready to begin a long day of work when he opened the door to his office.  
"Henry?" the older brother asked, startled, "What are you doing in here?"  
"Going over my half of the guest list," Henry answered. "Sorry for taking your office, it was the only one big enough."  
Henry wasn't kidding either. The entire room was strewn with papers- desks, shelves, chairs, even the floor. A wheeled corkboard was moved into the room and covered with paper scraps, tacks and string in a complicated tangle that would make a lizard truther proud.  
"Good Lord!" Philip exclaimed. "When did you wake up?"  
"It's more that I never went to bed in the first place," Henry admitted. "It's times like these I hate being a royal. Deciding who should and should not be invited would be so much easier if I weren't technically related to half of these people!"  
"I see. " Philip carefully examined his brother's handiwork on the corkboard. "You forgot a string." He pointed to a place between two names.  
"What?" Henry spun around to see where. "NO! This ruins everything! I was so close!"  
"Why don't you just elope?"  
"Really, Pip? You of all people suggesting I elope?"  
"Frankly," Philip said, adding the string his brother missed, "I wish I did."  
"Wait, what?" Henry stopped picking up a stack he spilled in his haste and gave his brother his full attention.  
"Oh, don't get me wrong, we'd still have done the Westminster wedding," Philip assured, "the commoners demand their bread and circuses after all."  
Henry rolled his eyes.  
"But it would have been nice to have the actual wedding somewhere quiet," Philip continued. "Just Mazzy and I and our closest friends at a quiet ceremony in Gretna Green, or wherever it is young lovers elope to these days."  
"That would be nice," Henry said. "Why didn't you?"  
"I was hung up on doing things properly, so I never broached the subject to Mazzy," Philip said. "And unlike you or I, Mazzy isn't a very private person, so it honestly never occurred to her. She wishes it did though, then she'd have had the maid of honour she really wanted."  
"Which is?"  
"Lady Agatha's son. The one that's always quail hunting."  
"You mean Trent Talbot?"  
"Yes. Either him, or Mat Cheltenham."  
"I can see why she didn't get her choice."  
Philip hummed in despondent assent. "I probably wouldn't have been so adamant you weren't a groomsman either."  
"Hey, the feeling was mutual," Henry said. "Do I regret not standing for you? Of course, we're brothers. But it was still a mutual decision."  
"Perhaps, but I desperately wanted Bruno to be my best man, and for my scheme to work you couldn't be a groomsman."  
"Oh?"  
"So I may have implied, or even outright stated, that, if you were a groomsman, the bachelor party would have occurred at, ah, a gentleman's gentleman's club, shall we say."  
Henry's eyes widened in shock. "So that's why she dropped it."  
"Sorry. I wasn't thinking straight."  
"Oh, I'd say you were thinking very straight," Henry admonished.  
Philip quirked an eyebrow at that. It took a while for him to get the joke. "Oh, haha. You know what I meant. And I really am sorry"  
"I know," Henry shrugged. "Why _did_ you want Bruno as your best man?"  
"For the same reason Percy, I presume, will be yours. He's my second best friend."  
"The first best being Mazzy?"  
"Of course."  
"How on earth did you get Gran to agree to Bruno being your best man?"  
"Well," Philip began, "first I told her that the traditional purpose of a groomsman is to defend the life and honour of the groom on his wedding day, with the best man being the one the groom most trusts to do that."  
"And since an equerry even today does those things on a daily basis," Henry finished, "who better to stand for you than your equerry?"  
"Exactly. But then she said that, if we were arguing tradition, the highest ranking groomsman should be the best man. That's when I brought up the gentleman's gentleman's club issue."  
"To get me off the list."  
"Exactly. And again, I'm sorry. But with you out of the way, all it took were some judicious comments from Mazzy among the groomsmen to get them fighting for the top spot, then I swooped in with the compromise."  
"You name Bruno the best man, so none of them get the top spot and they're all equally unhappy."  
"Exactly. And since all the groomsmen agreed to this compromise, and it was so close to the promised wedding date, Gran had no choice but to let Bruno be my best man."  
"Clever."  
"It was mostly Mazzy's idea. She knows how much Bruno means to me."  
"I see," Henry said. "What did she get in return?"  
"The wedding cake. I don't like Genoise sponge."  
"Oh." Henry was suddenly very afraid. "Oh dear."  
"And she never even got to taste it." Philip added. "But hey, at least you and Alexander got together, so it was worth it."  
Henry cocked his head like a spaniel. "Are you being sarcastic?"  
"No, that is in fact why she invited him in the first place."  
"I was _wondering_ how he made the guest list."


End file.
